Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » TAG: HP

February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

HP makes MCS liquid-cooling rack twice a nice

TAGS: Cooling, HP

HP has made a clever upgrade to its Modular Cooling System (MCS) liquid-cooling rack. In its previous iteration, the unit was designed to chill a single rack packed with high-density machines. However, the company found that many customers weren't packing enough processing power into racks to take advantage of the MCS unit's full 35kW of cooling power.

With the new G2 version, however, customers will have a way: Thanks to bi-directional cooling technology (including three additional hot-swappable fans), MCS G2 can simultaneously cool two server racks at up to 17.5KW, or concentrate up to 35KW to cool a single rack. The machine's form factor and power draw remain the same, however.

HP says the water-cooled MCS reduces datacenter cooling costs by containing between 95 and 97 percent of heat inside server racks "while supporting up to three times the kilowatt capacity of a traditional, air-cooled rack."

More information is available at the HP site.

Posted by Ted Samson on February 13, 2008 10:23 AM

January 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Dell's shiny green blade server

TAGS: Blades, Dell, Energy conservation, Green benchmarks, Green technology, HP, Hardware, IBM, Open Source Systems (OSS), Power consumption, Power supplies, Sustainable IT

The PowerEdge M-series from Dell has it all, from a hyper-efficient power supply to superior cooling and power management
From a green-tech perspective, the most intriguing server I've ever known (from a distance) was the Gemini Green Series from Open Source Solutions (OSS). Highly efficient power supplies? Check. Efficient internal cooling? Check. Easily swappable components -- from motherboards to memory to power supplies -- to eliminate the need for ripping and replacing upgrades? Check.

Alas, OSS is no more, but its legacy won't be forgotten -- not by me, anyway. The fact that it's gone the way of rainbow suspenders is no reason to dismiss the beauty of its product design either. In fact, I see glimmers of the Gemini in Dell's newly announced PowerEdge M-Series chassis and blades. Dell designed the M-Series "from the ground up using Dell Energy Smart technologies, resulting in 30 industry patents," clearly with sustainability in mind.

Playing it cool
Like the OSS Gemini (which was a 2U server, by the way), Dell's new PowerEdge blades employs 90-plus percent efficient power supplies, developed in-house. (For reasons I still can't fathom, the standard among server vendors still appears to be in the realm of 80 percent.)

Not only is Dell's power supply capable of hitting a higher energy-efficiency level; it does so more quickly than rival power supplies, according to Mike Roberts, senior product planning manager for the M-Series line. He says that most power supplies achieve their maximum level of energy efficiency only when the supply is running at 90 to 100 percent utilization -- which certainly isn't the norm. "We get to a really good efficiency level at relatively low threshold, 88 percent at only 20 percent utilization," he says.

Those seemingly small differences among power supplies can actually make a dramatic difference in terms of reducing a server's power and heat waste -- and the associated costs scale impressively the larger your datacenter.

Dell also claims to have developed an innovative internal cooling system, designed to adapt to the needs of both high-end and low-end configurations. In addition to its optimized fans (as well as their underlying algorithms), the system boasts a superior airflow design, according to Roberts; Dell has taken great pains to remove impedance throughout the chassis. "The easier the air flows, the less hard the fans have to work," says Roberts.

The chassis also has three distinct cooling zones, each cooled by its own fan bank. In lower-end configurations where the chassis isn't fully loaded with blades, "the fans on the side can run really slowly because they don't have to work hard to cool their zone," says Roberts.

There's also the swappability factor (a word you will not find in Webster's, by the way). In an ideal green-tech world (mine anyway), an IT admin would be able to swap in and out all major components in his or her servers, while they're on the rack, such that machines wouldn't need to head to the shop or, more likely, to the recycling bin if a substantial upgrade is needed. It doesn't look like the major hardware vendors of the world are ready to offer that level of hardware interoperability, but here, Dell has taken a step in that direction.

Specifically, the company has developed what it dubs FlexIO switch technology for easily upgrading the machine's network connectivity up to 10Gig without replacing the base switch. For the enclosure, customers can opt for an upgradeable Dell PowerConnect M6220 Layer 2/3 Ethernet blade switch, with 1Gb ports and optional bays that can support either 10GbE or stacking ports.

Further, customers have three Cisco Ethernet switch choices, including a switch with a variety of 1Gbps, 10 Gbps, and stackable ports. Also available: a Cisco Infiniband switch. Add to that the options for two Brocade 4Gbps Fibre Channels, as well as Fibre Channel and Ethernet Pass Through options.

Additionally, with an eye on the future, Dell has designed the M1000e enclosure not to be dependent on specific server processor/chip set architecture. Further, it will be able to accommodate double-wide blades down the road.

Secret software sauce
Dell's hardware choices alone don't result in a more energy-efficient machine. Like an increasing number of vendors, Dell is turning to server management software to rein in energy waste -- a promising development that stands to lower those power bills and extend the life of hardware.

In Dell's case, that software takes the form of its Version 5.3 of its OpenManage systems management suite, released last November. Dell touts the package -- which comes at no cost with the blade package -- as "easy-to-use yet powerful management tools that help reduce the cost and complexity of managing computing resources."

Among its features is dynamic power management, which enables admins to set high- and low-power thresholds to help ensure blades operate within their defined power envelope. The norm is for servers to consume the maximum recommended amount all the time, even if they're not usually being run at full bore. Moreover, the package offers real-time reporting for enclosure and blade power consumption, and the ability to prioritize blade slots for power to provide optimal control over power resources.

So, for example, if an admin were to allot 3,000 watts to a given chassis, the system would distribute power evenly among all the blades. However, if the chassis wasn't pulling enough power, for whatever reason, it could be set to prioritize which blades would be throttled down first.

Your benchmark or mine?
As Dell tells it, the various greenovations it's injected in these babies reap superior power efficiency (that is, performance per watt) over rival blade offerings from HP and IBM. According to a Dell-sponsored study by Principled Technologies, "the PowerEdge M-Series consumes up to 19 percent less power and achieves up to 25 percent better performance per watt than the HP BladeSystem c-Class. Compared to the IBM BladeCenter H, the M-Series consumes 12 percent less energy and achieves up to 28 percent better performance per watt."

Were you to apply a cost-per-kilowatt amount to those figures, as Dell has, you'd save $2,600 annually per year over HP's blade competitor and $1,500 per rack per year over IBM's.

I wouldn't discount Principled Technologies figures outright, just because the study was sponsored by Dell. It's entirely conceivable that, given the power-efficient measures Dell has taken, its blades consistently delivered better per-watt performance -- but only in that test, which used the SPECjbb2005 benchmark.

Problem is, that benchmark wasn't really developed to measure power efficiency. Organizations and analysts are still grappling as to what method is best for accomplishing that, as evidenced by a recent study comparing the power efficiency of AMD and Intel's respective quad-core chips.

The point is, benchmarks are slowly emerging, such as SPEC's recently announced SPECpower_ssj2008. However, that benchmark isn't suited for a blade environment. In short, work here remains to be done.

Hopefully the InfoWorld Test Center will have a chance to test Dell's claims against offerings from HP and IBM. Whatever the outcome of that test might be (again, if it happens), I still extend kudos to Dell for further raising the green bar more among hardware vendors.

One last thought: IBM and HP may claim that they're not worried about Dell's latest foray into the world of blades. In fact, a rep from one of those vendors sent me a rather dismissive note prior to the official Dell announcement: "We've been hearing rumors over here that Dell finally plans to announce their copycat blade on Monday. Odd that they'd choose a national holiday to announce, but that's another story ;-)."

Of course, when you go out of your way to eagerly point something out and declare you're not worried about it -- you're probably at least a leetle bit worried about it. Conceivably, Dell has surprised the competition with the level of innovation it's brought to the table here, enough to generate some concern.

Posted by Ted Samson on January 24, 2008 03:00 AM

January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Dell, HP join effort to measure supply chains' carbon output

TAGS: Carbon emissions, Dell, Green supply chain, HP

Feeling increasing pressure, both internally from high-level execs and externally from customers, investors, and politicians, companies are taking the size of their carbon footprints quite seriously.

Yet more companies are determining that their own daily operations aren't the sole contributors to their carbon emissions. Rather, they're factoring in the emissions produced by the vendors down their supply chains. No one wants to be a greenhouse gas spewer by association, so to speak.

Exemplifying this trend is a recent announcement from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors managing more than $41 trillion in assets. CDP is working with 11 corporate giants -- including IT heavyweights HP and Dell -- to develop a standard method to gather carbon-emissions information from suppliers.

According to CDP, developing a standard means for suppliers to deliver carbon-emissions information "will vastly decrease the burden on [those] suppliers who might otherwise receive several separate requests for similar information."

Indeed, suppliers have already been facing increased scrutiny for customers further up the supply chain, such as HP, IBM, and Wal-Mart, to demonstrate their environmental and social stewardship.

"The Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration is a key step towards a unified business approach to climate change," said CDP CEO Paul Dickinson in a written statement. "By bringing together the purchasing authority of some of the largest companies in the world, CDP will encourage suppliers to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. This will enable large companies to work towards managing their total carbon footprint, as the first step to reducing the total carbon footprint is to measure its size."

A pilot of the project is now under way. Each participating member of the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration has selected as many as 50 suppliers to respond to the CDP pilot information request in the first quarter of this year. From there, the project will be rolled out in May.

In addition to Dell and HP, other companies participating in the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration include: Cadbury Schweppes, Imperial Tobacco, L'Oreal, Nestle, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Tesco, and Unilever.

More information about CDP's Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration is available on the CDP Web site.

Related articles:
Green demands trickle down the supply chain

The healthy carbon diet

Video: HP's Glazer talks green supply chain

Wal-Mart throws its weight behind greener supply chain

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on January 17, 2008 03:54 PM

January 10, 2008 | Comments: (0)

CES: HP pledges to cut PC power usage by 25 percent

TAGS: Green technology, HP, Hardware, Notebooks, PCs, Power consumption, Power supplies, Processors

Using the greener-than-ever CES as a backdrop, HP this week announced plans to reduce the energy consumption of its volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 percent by 2010 -- relative to its 2005 numbers.

HP's strategy for achieving this goal is pretty straightforward. In part, the company will continue to integrate more efficient power supplies and lower-energy chip sets into its systems. Here, HP is safely betting on the fact that these component vendors down the supply chain will continue to crank out increasingly efficient wares.

Power to the PC
HP's approach to power supplies is worth noting; I find it quite interesting, given the green agenda the company has embraced. In 2007, HP rolled out smaller form factors for its USDTs (ultra slim desktops). The HP dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC, for example, is 46 percent smaller than previous models.

As part of the new design, the company incorporated a standard 85 percent efficient external power supply, according to Andrew Medlin, senior manager of business PC product marketing at HP. (External power supplies tend to be more efficient than internal, Medin points out.)

That's fine for small systems. Large-chassis systems, however, run on internal power supplies. HP customers seeking to purchase a larger system with a relatively more efficient 80-plus percent internal power supply will need to pay a $20 premium.

In other words, HP isn't making the more efficient supply the standard here. "There is significant cost associated with more efficient power supplies in general, and since not all customers value the more efficient power supplies, we chose to provide them a choice," says Medin.

Of course, I'd love to see HP and other PC vendors pushing green agendas to make efficient power supplies the standard on all of their machines. Yes, I can appreciate that the cold, hard reality of the bottom line can offset the greenest of intentions, a fact that many a vendor is dealing with. Even pushing the efficient power supply at a discount (say, $10 a piece) and highlighting the green and cost-saving benefits would be a good start.

Resting easy
In addition to using efficient components to achieve its goal, HP says it will employ more energy-saving technologies and processes into its volume PC portfolio. As an example, the company pointed out that Verdiem's Surveyor remote power management software agent comes preloaded on all its dc7800-series PCs. "When activated, Surveyor can help measure, manage, and reduce power consumption on PCs and monitors by up to 33 percent, or about 200 kilowatt-hours per PC annually," according to HP.

Indeed, there are cost savings and other green-related benefits to be enjoyed through PC power-management tools. But, as with an 80-plus percent efficient power supply that comes at a premium, the Surveyor tool isn't free; it's costs around $20 per licensee to activate.

Here, I'm less critical of HP's choice. Verdiem's offering is geared toward managing power consumption of PCs throughout a larger organization and is far more powerful than the run-of-the-mill tools that put the average home PC in sleep mode when it's not in use. Tools from Verdiem and its competitors are designed for remotely managing a fleet of PCs, ensuring they're powered down when not in use and turned on just before end-users come to their desks in the morning. Many of these power-management solutions are also designed to wake up systems from sleep mode after hours for patches and backups, then put them back to sleep. Given the power and complexity of these types of tools, it's only fair that HP pass the cost to large-size customers.

HP's Medin does add that HP is working on a power-management tool aimed at small businesses and SOHO customers that "will eventually be available at no added cost."

The bottom line here, as I see it, is that HP's on the right track in pursuing its green agenda. In fact, given all the increasingly efficient components and energy management software we're seeing, I don't expect it will be too difficult for the company to attain its goal of cutting energy usage of its volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 percent by 2010.

I am, however, interested to see how HP and its competitors will continue to raise the green bar. Will we, in fact, see a company commit to making the most energy-efficient power supplies out there the standard in their systems? Will more PCs come preloaded with better power-management tools? I certainly expect so.

How do you envision PC vendors making their wares greener?

Related links:
CES groomed for green
ColdWatt powers energy-efficient servers
When PCs don't snooze, you lose

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on January 10, 2008 12:58 PM

November 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP lands green datacenter consultant EYP

TAGS: Green consulting services, HP

Extending its reach into the ripening green-consulting space, HP today announced the acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, a consulting company specializing in strategic technology planning, design and operations support for large-scale datacenters.

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. HP's aim, however, is clear: to tap into the growing demand for more energy-efficient datacenters by bolstering its existing Data Center Services, and no doubt hawking more HP gear along the way.

"The datacenter is the foundation of IT for enterprises, an essential building block for driving business growth and adapting to changing business objectives," said John McCain, senior vice president and general manager of HP Services in a written statement. "Acquiring EYP Mission Critical Facilities boosts HP's ability to help customers transform their datacenters and build dynamic computing environments from the ground up."

EYP has developed a green reputation since its establishment in 2001 as a split-off from A/E giant Einhorn Yaffee Prescott. Headquartered in New York with 13 offices worldwide and technical staff of more than 350, the company's arsenal of tools includes a homegrown software package called EnerOpt, designed to assess and optimize energy consumption in the datacenter. Among its clients, the company claims 25 percent of the Fortune magazine's list of top EPA Green Partners. Moreover, the company designed the first LEED-rated datacenter for Fannie Mae in Urbana, Maryland, and is currently designing a datacenter for the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

Like other big-name hardware companies, including IBM, Dell, and Sun, HP has been playing up the green credentials of its wares, such as its Smart Dynamic Cooling offering, power capping features in its Systems Insight Manager software, and its recently announced line of more energy-efficient ProLiant BL460c blades.

Moreover, the big boys of technology have also started adding more green-hued services to their portfolios. In August, IBM added carbon consulting to business consulting operation. Also in August, Sun unveiled an Eco Services Suite. BT is also on the list.

HP's acquisition of EYP is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to be completed within HP's first fiscal quarter.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 12, 2007 11:28 AM

October 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP deploys 7,500 Dynamic Smart Cooling sensors in new Bangalore datacenter

TAGS: HP

Add HP to the list of IT companies using large datacenter projects to showcase their energy-efficient practices and wares. The company today announced that it's consolidated 14 separate datacenters in Bangalore, India into one high-density, 70,000 square foot research facility, cooled by the largest implementation of HP's Dynamic Smart Cooling (DSC) system to date.

Released in September, DSC employs sensors to monitor the temperatures of invidual server racks and adjust to meet their respective cooling needs.

The idea behind the system is, it saves on cooling costs because it eliminates the need to blast A/C throughout the entire datacenter at a low temperature. (Having visited HP's research datacenter in Palo Alto, Calif. where Dynamic Smart Cooling is used, I can attest to the fact that it doesn't feel at all like, say, Antarctica.)

The Bangalore facility has a total of 7,500 DSC sensors, monitoring the temperatures of a heterogenous environment of older legacy equipment and newer server racks and blades, according to HP. The DSC deployment, HP reports, is yielding a 20 percent reduction in cooling power consumption.

When fully optimized, the datacenter is expected to yield up to a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption over today's typical datacenter cooling methods, HP says. The company anticipates it will save 7,500 megawatt-hours annually.

As part of the sensor network, an agile mechanism responds to facility failures, anomalies and brown outs.

HP says it was able to remotely conduct the implementation of the DSC technology at the Bangalore datacenter from its facility in Palo Alto. Moreover, the company is able to monitor the datacenter from the California lab.

Posted by Ted Samson on October 23, 2007 12:01 AM

October 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Citrix unveils energy-saving PowerSmarts for Presentation Server

TAGS: Citrix, Energy conservation, HP, Servers, Waste reduction

During peak hours, admins want their servers fully charged and running at full bore to ensure their apps are delivered without annoying service lapses. But during non-peak hours, there's no logical reason why machines need to feed on as many watts of energy.

In an effort to help cut down on that energy waste -- and the associated energy and cooling bills -- Citrix today announced a new PowerSmarts feature for its Citrix Presentation Server line, which lets admins set policies to "automatically dial server power down based on application traffic levels," according to the company.

The company claims the feature can help customers datacenter energy consumption costs by up to fifty percent, a rather impressive claim if it's accurate.

"The key to any effective response to green IT challenges is to be able to maintain, and even increase, the capacity of IT infrastructure while reducing its energy consumption," said Scott Herren, Citrix group vice president and general manager of the Citrix Application Virtualization Group. "By powering down unused Presentation Servers during off-peak usage, we are helping our customers be more green and at the same time putting money right back into their wallets."

Citrix also announced that HP is the first company with hardware to support the PowerSmarts feature in its HP ProLiant portfolio.

Notably, HP itself unveiled a power-capping feature of its own earlier this year called HP Insight Power Manager, part of the company's Systems Insight Manager (SIM) hardware management platform.

PowerSmart is compatible with all current versions and editions of Citrix Presentation Server and iLO-enabled HP servers. It will be available in December to all Citrix Presentation Server customers as a free download at www.citrix.com/cdn.

Posted by Ted Samson on October 22, 2007 02:56 PM

August 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Linux, Windows duke it out over energy efficiency

TAGS: HP, IBM, Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Platforms

The battles for energy efficiency aren't just being fought by chipmakers, server and PC vendors, and other hardware companies out there. There's a similar battle heating up on the OS layer between Microsoft and Linux.

Linux appears to have an advantage at the moment: Companies are becoming increasingly open to adopting the platform both in the server room and on the desktop. Big-name vendors like IBM, HP, and Novell are giving the penguin a push in the datacenter, framing it as a flexible and energy-efficient platform. The fact that Linux offers greater virtualization opportunities than Windows (a sentiment recently expressed by the VMWare CTO Mendel Rosenblum) only strengthens the platform's green standing.

Microsoft isn't resting on its laurels, though. It plans to make power-management tools a central part of Windows Server 2008. Further, it's advancing its own virtualization strategy.

The Linux Foundation has spelled out plans to bring improved power management to the OS in an effort called the Green Linux Initiative. The workgroup's efforts could bring longer battery life to battery-powered mobile devices and lower operating costs in the server room.

Some of the projects the Linux Foundation envisions includes:

• Developing a tickless kernel, which enables the processor to sleep between tasks
  
• Creating power-aware applications and policies
  
• Boosting power management for USB peripherals
  
• Improving suspend and hibernate reliability
  
• Fixing bugs in userspace applications that cause unnecessary processor usage

"At the Linux Foundation, we've realized that while there have been many recent advances in Linux power management, there are still new, untapped ways to make Linux more green," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, in a written statement. "Our Green Linux initiative will leverage the power of our members ... to enhance these improvements. We expect Linux to be a leader in this area and for Linux customers, and the environment, to realize the gains brought about by our members' efforts."

One company heavily involved in the big green push is Big Blue. In conjunction with the Linux Foundation, IBM announced its own Big Green Linux initiative to help customers further integrate Linux into the enterprise so as to "to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers," according to the company.

IBM is making noise about the energy-saving consolidation potential of Linux in conjunction with its own hardware, particularly its System z mainframes. Eating a healthy helping of its dogfood, IBM is consolidating approximately 3,900 of its own servers onto about 30 System z mainframes running Linux.

Joining IBM and the Linux Foundation in the green push is Novell, which is touting the greenery of its flavor of Linux. "With every release of our SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, Novell finds new ways to help customers reduce power consumption through improvements in policy-driven power management and system monitors for servers, along with better suspend functionality for laptops," said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell, in a written statement.

It doesn't end there: HP is also singing the praises of Linux, noting that it has a key role in next-generation datacenter strategy. At LinuxWorld earlier this month, Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group within HP, talked up the penguin, according to an IDG News Service report. "The energy efficiency of all servers has become the issue 'every customer wants to talk about,' she said and applauded the new functionality added to the Linux kernel that improves energy efficiency by putting Linux systems into low-power states when there's a pause in computing."

Microsoft isn't blind to the high demand for more energy-efficient systems. The company went to great lengths to talk up the power management features of Vista and has green aspirations for the next version of Windows server. In a recent interview on SearchDataCenter.com, Stephen Berard, program manager of the Windows Platform Architecture team, detailed some of the future OS's power-management features.

Among them, he says that, "in Windows Server 2008, you can lock a processor in a state right off the bat. We also have finer-grade controls for thresholds that can address cases where the default settings don't fit what you want to do. The defaults that come out of the box are going to be good for the vast majority of people."

Posted by Ted Samson on August 28, 2007 03:00 AM

August 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Chillin' at the HP datacenter

TAGS: Cooling, Energy conservation, Green technology, HP, Waste reduction

A tour of HP's test lab datacenter reveals the company's Dynamic Smart Cooling initiative

Call me an environmentalist. Call me frugal. Or call me a glutton for punishment. I don't like turning on the air conditioning in my house here in Sacramento unless I absolutely have to (when the temperatures hit the 100s, for instance, as they did earlier this summer). My preferred method to beat the heat: Depending on what room I'm in, I'll turn on the fan that happens to be pointed in my general direction. It often gets the job done, and it's less expensive than cranking up the A/C to full blast.

The average server rack, however, doesn't have the luxury of flipping on the nearest cooling apparatus if it's getting too hot. So the traditional practice has been for datacenter operators to crank up the CRAC (computer room air conditioning) to the point where it feels like a meat locker.

That practice ensures that the hottest-running machines in the joint don't combust in a fiery explosion of hardware parts and mission-critical data. And even with best practices in place, that blanket-of-cold approach is wasteful from a "dear Lord, look at this month's energy bill" perspective.

But there's been some evolution in CRAC technology aimed at easing the pain. HP, for example, has been busily building on its Dynamic Smart Cooling (DSC) technology to help datacenter operators more efficiently chill their hardware on a more granular level, an approach the company says can deliver 20- to 45-percent energy cost savings. That could mean a cool million, depending on how large your facility is. And I had a chance to see DSC in action recently as I took a guided video tour of the datacenter at HP's test labs in Palo Alto, Calif., led by HP Fellow Chandrakant Patel, one of the DSC developers.

On the tour, I got to see the rows of server racks in HP's datacenter, all busily humming away -- yet the facility itself was surprisingly warm. (Patel likened it to summer in San Francisco, but really, I think it was warmer than that.) That's the magic of DSC: Affixed to every rack were small, black DSC sensors, which collected air-temperature measurements in real time and delivered them to the DSC's control node. In response to the readings, the system adjusts cooling, not of the entire facility, but rather just the area of the datacenter where a rack is running especially hot. And after that rack cools down, the CRAC unit for that region adjusts accordingly.

One of the cool tricks with the DSC, according to Patel: You can check on the temperature of your datacenter facility from anywhere, which is a mixed blessing if you're on a much-needed vacation in Tahiti and get an SMS about an overheating episode.

Patel also told me about HP's recently unveiled Thermal Assessment Services (TAS). Through TAS, HP measures a datacenter's thermal conditions to assist customers with planning server-rack placement. By knowing, for example, which regions of the facility get the most cool air, a datacenter admin could know the optimal location for the highest-utilized and hottest-running server racks.

Depending on how much a company is willing to shell out, a TAS assessment could include generating a "thermal zone map," a three-dimensional model depicting how much and where datacenter air conditioners are cooling.

As HP describes it, the maps can help datacenter operators see, for example, where there's over-provisioning or redundancy in cooling coverage in the room.

I don't want to give away everything in the video, but I will add that Patel shared with me an interesting chip-cooling technology that HP is working on called ink-jet cooling. It borrows from the technology behind ink-jet printers, but rather than showering paper with ink, small components within servers would shower chips with coolant, as needed. Time will tell just how effective this will be. I wonder about adding yet another delicate part to a server that can break.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Patel's a very engaging, eloquent, and erudite fellow.

Posted by Ted Samson on August 23, 2007 03:00 AM

July 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP: Over 1B pounds recycled

TAGS: Green business, HP, Hardware, PCs, Recycling, Servers, Sustainable IT, Waste reduction

Vendor aims to recycle another billion pounds of electronics and printer cartridges by 2010

The expression "What goes around comes around" is proving increasingly apt in the world of enterprise hardware as more companies discover the benefits of recycling retired PCs, servers, handhelds, and the like.

Indicative of the rising interest in hardware recycling, also known as IT asset recovery, HP has announced that its achieved its goal of recycling one billion pounds of hardware six months before the deadline it had set back in 2004. The company now seeks to recycle two billion pounds of gear and printer cartridges -- that is, another billion pounds -- by 2010.

"Environmental responsibility is good business," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO, in a written statement. "We've reached the tipping point where the price and performance of IT are no longer compromised by being green, but are now enhanced by it."

Pat Tiernan, VP of corporate, social, and environmental responsibility at HP, called the two billion pound goal for 2010 "the most aggressive recycling goal in the industry. "We expect to achieve it in three and a half years by expanding our convenient re-use and recycling services worldwide."

HP currently operates its program in 40 countries around the globe.

"In 2006 alone, HP recycled 164 million pounds of products globally -- the equivalent weight of more than 600 jumbo airliners and a 16 percent increase over 2005," said Tiernan.

Vendors that engage in hardware recycling refurbish and resell systems when possible ha or else mine the products for materials that can be used elsewhere. According to HP, plastics and metals it has recovered have been used to make a range of new products, including auto body parts, clothes hangers, plastic toys, fence posts, serving trays, and roof tiles.

Posted by Ted Samson on July 17, 2007 09:23 AM

June 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP injects power-capping tool in Systems Insight Manager

TAGS: HP, Hardware, Power consumption

Feature limits energy-use on a per-machine basis, potentially reducing overall datacenter power consumption by 70%, HP says

With many companies struggle with soaring energy costs as well as limits on getting the power they need to expand, or even run, their datacenters, HP today a new power-capping component for HP Insight Power Manager, part of the HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) hardware management platform.

Using Insight Power Manager, customers can measure the average and peak power usage of their HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers and cap power at specific wattages, according to HP. That, in turn, can reduce power and cooling costs. Moreover, it helps companies ensure that they don't draw more energy from the grid than they're allotted. Trying to draw more energy than is available to you can reduce in unexpected downtime.

Currently, datacenter administrators plan their power budgets -- the total amount of energy they expect the hardware in the datacenter to consume -- based on collective power-consumption specs provided by the vendors. However, those numbers are based on high-usage scenarios, which some servers never actually reach, according to Jeff Carlat, director of industry standard servers software at HP. Thus, companies are pumping more electricity into certain machines than may be necessary.

"The energy usage grows significantly as you reach that faster speed on the server. The ability to capture the power and drive conservation of power can free up excess power in your power budget to deploy new servers," said Carlat.

Alternatively, depending on a companies needs, you can just put those savings back in your pocket.

According to Carlat, HP found in lab tests that it was able to reduce power consumption by 70% through power-capping, though the tests were limited to ten servers.

Admins can tweak the power-cap on a given server as needed, too. A database server, for example, might need more energy when churning at monthly reports. Thus, an admin could set it to receive 1,000W during report time and 700 the rest of the time.

The potential drawback to not setting the power cap high enough is degraded hardware response time, which admins can rectify by adjusted the cap -- or accept in exchange for the associated savings.

In addition to the new power-capping features, HP also introduced remote management features through Integrated Lights-Out 2, a plug-in application to HP SIM. Through a shared remote console, the tool allows for up to four users at one time to diagnose system issues and execute tasks, from anywhere in the world, according to HP.

Through the console replay capability, users can document procedures, train others or share with others to troubleshoot a problem.

The power measurement and power capping capabilities now ship standard with Insight Power Manager, which starts at $99. HP ProLiant Essentials Integrated Lights-Out 2 is also now available and starts at $349.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 25, 2007 03:00 AM

June 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Green HP rp5700 desktop strikes EPEAT gold

TAGS: HP

HP raises the ecobar with energy-efficient desktop system designed for long life and easy recycling

Sowing the seeds for a new crop of green desktops, HP announced this week the first PC on the market to achieve EPEAT (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool) gold status.

EPEAT-registered products are designated as "bronze," "silver," or "gold," depending on the number of environmental features they possess, such as reduced levels of hazardous materials, improved energy efficiency, and ease of upgrade and recycle.

Aimed at general business users in industries such as retail, health care, banking, manufacturing, and distribution, the HP's rp5700 Business Desktop PC packs some nifty ecofriendly features.

Among them, it comes with a standard 80 percent efficient power supply; most PCs on the market settle on 65 percent. That extra efficiency means lower electrical usage as well as less heat, all of which contributes to cost savings. (I hope vendors start making them standard elements in their systems -- not just the ones designed or marketed as green.)

Another cost saver: The hardened systems have a five-year lifecycle, compared to the standard 12- to 18-month lifecycle of typical PCs, according to HP. That means less turnover as well as fewer administrative headaches. "Companies can have 10 to 12 different software configurations they're trying to manage, based on different chip sets. The longer they can hold onto a product, the greater the TCO is for them," says Lesley Fagg, worldwide product marketing manager at HP.

Interestingly, the rp5700 is built on HP's rp5000 PoS (point of sales) systems, which were originally aimed at the retail market. However, they garnered interest in other verticals, which is what inspired HP to create this business desktop version.

The systems are for organizations that "do not have complex computing environments. The assumption is that they are using these PCs more for tasks that are repetitive in nature. They don't need latest and greatest technology; they need something that will last a long time. They care about about longevity and stability," says Fagg.

Built on the Intel Q963 Express chipset, the system supports legacy Windows 2000 as well as XP Pro and Windows Business Vista 32-bit, so companies that are content with an older iteration of Windows can stick with it.

The small-form-factor system also has a tool-less chassis design, which makes both maintenance and recycling easier. Speaking of form factor, the systems are built with 95 percent recyclable components, according to HP. The plastic components are made, on average, of at least 10 percent post-consumer recycled plastics, and the outer packaging contains at least 25 percent post-consumer recycled cardboard.

Like other PCs that have recently made it to the market, both from HP and Dell, only certain configurations of the rp5700 meet the Energy Star 4.0 standard, and I remain curious whether any of those ES 4.0 configs are equipped to deliver the "full" Vista experience, including Aero and good performance running basic apps.

Frankly, when I look at the two preconfigured systems on the HP site that come with Vista Business 32, or when I try the Configure and Buy option, it's not clear whether the system I choose meets ES 4.0 of not, nor whether I can take full advantage of Vista. I had similar problems on Dell's site looking for its ES 4.0 configurations.

Interestingly, the fine print at the bottom of the ordering page notes, "Not all Windows Vista features are available for use on all Windows Vista Capable PCs. All Windows Vista Capable PCs will run the core experiences of Windows Vista, such as innovations in organizing and finding information, security, and reliability. Some features available in premium editions of Windows Vista -- like the new Windows Aero user interface -- require advanced or additional hardware."

To HP's credit, the company says it is working "on an update to the online configurator that will display which systems run Vista and meet Energy Star or EPEAT criteria."

One other thing: HP alluded to an interesting optional feature for the rp5700 in its product announcement: "a solar renewable energy source as an alternative power choice." Turns out that is the Solar PowerPac II, which, when charged, can provide up to 600 watt-hours of power for small loads.

However, the PowerPac seems a bit unwiedly, measuring 14.8 inches tall, 15.6 inches wide, and 12.3 inches deep, and weighs 60 pounds. (It has a 38-inch handle and wheels, so you can cart it around.) The solar-panel kits starts at 75 watts, measures 21 inches by 47 inches, and weighs 16.5 pounds. I'm not sure how practical that would be for most companies, especially with a price tag of $1,325. Anyone out there have thoughts on the utility of this kind of unit?

For more information about the HP rp5700, go to HP's Web site.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 5, 2007 04:17 PM

May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Thinking green? Think thin

TAGS: Carbon emissions, HP, Neoware, Power consumption, Sun, Sustainable IT, Thin clients, Virtualization, Windows, Wyse

Less power hungry than their PC peers, thin clients are garnering greater attention for their green advantages

Verizon CIO John Hinshaw confirmed a juicy green nugget of data in a recent interview: He said the wireless giant has reduced energy consumption by 30% since replacing PCs with Sun Ray thin clients in the company's call centers.

That will translate to a savings of $1 million per year for Verizon, once the company rolls out thin clients (or some "desktop-less" variants) in its remaining data centers.

"Power consumption is more of a hot topic in the U.S. than it has ever been," says Klaus Besier, president and CEO of thin-client vendor Neoware. "What we see with many more customers today is when they look at thin clients, they're taking more into account power consumption and [related] savings."

With their relatively lower energy requirements compared to PCs -- not to mention other eco-advantages like longer lifespan and smaller form factor with fewer parts -- thin clients are worthy of some serious consideration from companies.

Or perhaps I should say "reconsideration." Thin clients, after all, certainly aren't new, and advantages such as easier administration (fewer admin visits to users' desks) and improved security (data's stored remotely) are pretty well recognized. But thin clients continue to mature, as do the essential technologies that make them all the more viable. That includes virtualization (as InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager has noted), Wi-Fi, embedded OSes, and software as a service.

Thin, trim, and healthy
Combine all those technologies with the very real concerns over power shortages, high energy bills, and global climate change, and it's no surprise that IDC foresees steady 20%-plus year-over-year growth in the thin-client space, with shipments expected to reach 7.3 million in 2011.

"We're expecting positive growth for thin clients based on all the factors you've laid out [i.e. advances of virtualization and 10G, and growing concern about power consumption], as well as ongoing concerns about security and PC management costs," says Bob O'Donnell, program vice president for clients and displays at IDC.

Neoware asserts that companies can save as much as 90% on desktop-computing energy costs by swapping out PCs for thin clients -- depending on what models of hardware you're extracting or implementing, of course. But as an example, a desktop PC consumes as much as 280 watts of power in the amount of time that the high-end Neoware e140 burns up 48. So a company with 1,000 desktops would be spending about $62,000 yearly on power (based on the national KWH rate of $0.0849.), compared to around $10,500 for the clients, according to NeoWare. Savings: Around 50 grand a year per one thousand systems.

For the visually-oriented, here's a chart provided by thin-client vendor Wyse, comparing energy consumption of some of its thin-clients to various PC configurations:

Of course, when you install thin clients, you need servers in the server room to act as their brains. But those power savings are still significant, as noted in a recent report titled "Environmental comparison of PC and thin client equipment" by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. "Consumption is at least twice as low, sometimes three or four times lower than the consumption of corresponding PC systems. This applies even with the proportionate offsetting of the energy required by the server and the cooling power required for this," the report says.

Lower energy consumption is one of the clear eco- and monetary benefits. Another green-oriented cost advantage: the life-expectancy of a thin client, compared to a PC. "Thin clients don't need to be upgraded frequently. With thin clients, an OS release does not cause an upgrade to the client, only to the server -- resulting in far less e-waste, since the client can continue to be used longer," says Subodh Bapat, vice president and distinguished engineer for Sun's System Level Energy Strategy, which offers a range of Sun Ray thin clients. "Upgrade cycles of eight to 10 years are common in the thin-client world, as opposed to three to fours years for PCs, with corresponding benefits to the environment in terms of less e-waste."

Speaking of e-waste, Neoware's Besier adds that "Without moving parts, such as a fan or disk drive ... thin clients help companies meet their sustainability targets by eliminating much of the overhead associated with computing."

According to the Fraunhofer study, thin clients also hold a form-factor advntage over PCs, making them less expensive to ship: "They are only 35-40% of the weight of a PC and only take up 19-30% of the volume."

Not just about the green
Green issues aren't the only drivers for thin-client adoption. Jeff McNaught, chief marketing office at Wyse, opines that the new and improved Terminal Services features forthcoming in Windows Server 2008 (i.e. the platform formerly known as Longorn) will be a boon a Windows shops running thin clients.

In a simiar vein, Travid Brown, product manager for thin client solutions at HP, credits Windows XP Embedded for more acceptance of thin clients. "Microsoft has come a long way in developing XP Embedded It's the same binary as XP Pro ... and the thin-client experience now looks very much like the desktop experience. It's a lot better than it was a couple of years ago."

Another boon for thin clients: the shift toward 64-bit computing, by companies like Microsoft and Citrix, will spur adoption by sweetening the TCO pot. "Instead 125 users, you can have 250, 300 users on that server, just by changing the software. That has changed the cost equation," says McNaught

Moreover, McNaught says that company's in 2006 had been waiting to gauge VMware's success on the desktop virtualization front, given it success in the realm of server consolidation, and the results look promising. "You take the existing PC, suck all the data off a hard drive and onto the back-end, pop that PC off the desktop, drop a thin client, and the user continues working."

(Test Center Analyst Randall C. Kennedy was fairly impressed by the beta version of VMware Workstation 6.0 -- especially compared to the competition.)

There's also the advancements thin clients have undergone since the late 1990s when they were overhyped, notes Wyse's McNaught. "In those days, thin clients didn't do multimedia. Screen-draw capability was good, but not amazing," he says. "Companies like Wyse have been working on technology that will dramatically improve the user experience with multimedia, with voice over IP, with USB peripherals. Users can work in a multiscreen environment."

But green fever and technological evolution alone won't necessarily reduce some company's resistance to thin clients. Thin client vendors acknowledge that there wares won't dethrone the PC anytime soon.

For one thing, the machines are well-suited for plenty of basic applications, such as call centers or other roles where users are continually using the same few apps (e.g. productivity and e-mail). But high-end apps are better left on the desktop. "You would not have a CAD/CAM application running through a thin client," says Besier. "It doesn't even make sense to try to solve that problem. The market is not large enough."

Another reason thin clients haven't seem greater adoption, many vendors say, is that companies are set in their ways insofar as purchasing that which is familiar -- in this case, PCs, despite the fact that most desktops generally run at around 3% utilization. "Today's barriers are more of a cultural nature rather than a technical nature," says Sun's Bapat.

But Bapat predicts that "with the lower energy use, lower administration costs, better security, and less frequent capital expenditure outlays for upgrades, we will see more and more organizations making the move to thin-client computing."

Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 03:00 AM

May 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP gives WWF $2 million in tech, cash for climate-change research

TAGS: Carbon emissions, Dell, Global climate change, Green business, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo

Partnership another example of big-name IT companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Yahoo investing in environmental causes

"Technology is part of the problem, but it's also part of the solution." That, paraphrased, is one of the comments that Dave Douglas, Sun's VP of eco-responsibility, shared with me earlier this month.

The problem he was alluding to was the environmental challenges the planet faces due to global climate change. (When, and why, did the term "global climate change" replace "global warming"?) The IT industry indeed contributes to the phenomenon as its operations and wares churn out greenhouse gas in the form of carbon dioxide.

But a growing number of tech companies are owning up to the responsibility and becoming increasingly better environmental stewards, not only by boosting the energy-efficiency of their products, reducing waste, and finding ways to shrink their carbon footprints; they're also teaming up with environmental groups, donating not only money but technology and resources toward solving the problems.

Among them is HP, which today is announcing a partnership with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to allocate more than $2 million in cash and equipment to the non-profit for establishing three projects aimed at addressing the causes and consequences of global climate change. (HP and the WWF aren't strangers to working with one another.)

The projects, which focus on analysis, research and data collection, include:

-- The Epicenter for Climate Conservation – Focused on advancing climate adaptation and resiliency strategies and projects worldwide, the Epicenter for Climate Conservation will be driven by HP technology and led by Dr. Lara Hansen, chief climate scientist of WWF.

-- Information and Communication Technology Innovation as a Driver of Climate Change Solutions – This program will work to identify 1 billion tons of carbon reductions through the use of information and communication technology.

-- Climate Witness – An online forum to raise global awareness of the tangible consequences of climate change, Climate Witness will gather the stories of individuals and communities affected by global warming and share them with the world.

This announcement comes less than a week after Microsoft's big announcement that it would be teaming with the Clinton Foundation to develop a suite of technology tools, both software and services. designed to enable cities to monitor, compare and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Assisting in developing these measurement tools by ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)—Local Governments for Sustainability and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Microsoft will build the software using the knowledge base that ICLEI has acquired in developing its Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool (HEAT).

Additionally, Microsoft recently launched its "i'm" initiative, built around Windows Live Messenger. Users of the Microsoft instant-messaging client can register to have a portion of a Live Messenger session's ad revenue go to one of various non-profit organizations, including The Sierra Club and stopglobalwarming.org (not to be confused with stopglobalclimatechange.org).

The list of tech companies embarking on environmental causes (and other socially responsible ones) doesn't end there, and while I've been, well, a bit skeptical of some of the other efforts I've seen, the fact remains that these companies are making an effort and are certainly helping to raise awareness about environmental issues.

Dell, for examples, teamed up with with The Conservation Fund and the Carbonfund.org earlier this to launch "Plant a Tree for Me" -- a program through which Dell, er, lets people donate money to plant trees in order to "offset" the carbon emitted by their personal computers, laptops, and general lifestyles.

And Yahoo announced its "Greenest City in America" Challenge last week, which I'm still shaking my head over: Essentially, the city that wins is the one whose residents use Yahoo services the most for the next couple of weeks. And the prize is a fleet of hybrid taxis, or else $250,000, which can be used for a eco-friendly project of the winning city's choosing.

While the contest itself is, to me, simply ridiculous (they should have called it "The Yahoo-iest City in the U.S." Challenge), it, too, raises awareness, such as through the info on the company's new green portal -- plus Yahoo is giving out 150,000 energy-efficient CFL lightbulbs to people who participate.

Posted by Ted Samson on May 23, 2007 12:01 AM

May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IT has the power to cultivate a greener world

TAGS: Carbon emissions, Government, Green business, Green business, Green standards, Green technology, HP, IBM, Power consumption

Consensus continues to grow among political leaders around the world that global warming is a very probable threat that needs to be addressed. The latest evidence of this shifting mindset is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, released last week. The report is a major one, given its scope and number of countries involved, representing a large drop in a bucket of governmental studies and legislation aimed at addressing climate change.

Whether or not business leaders take seriously the threat of global warming, they would be well served to start finding ways to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions at their companies -- both in terms of their operations as well as their products. Acting sooner rather than later means they can stay ahead of stricter laws, as well as on top of the energy crisis that's already being felt in some datacenters.

"Energy grids are being constrained such that they can't deliver the energy that companies needs. Legislative schemes are being put into place to control [carbon emissions]," says John Frey, manager of corporate environmental strategies at HP. By not acting, companies themselves will be "inhibited from a growth perspective, or find themselves legislated or taxed into a corner. Most companies don't want to find themselves in that situation."

Frey concedes that legislation can help spur a change in a company's operations and its products, but waiting for laws to guide you isn't a prudent approach. "Legislation is not going to drive innovation. It is going to bring the high bar up a little bit for those that have not sought a leadership position and gotten in front of the issue."

Another benefit to staying ahead of the legislative curve: You get to participate in how legislation evolves. "As legislators are looking at whom they can invite in for a dialogue, it's interesting and satisfying that companies like HP are the ones that get invited to the table first," Frey says.

A member of the WWF's Climate Savers Program, HP has long employed sustainable IT practices, according to Frey, which has positioned the company well to stay ahead of legislation. Most recently, the company announced ambitious plans to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent by 2010. And driving these company's efforts is indeed green -- both of the monetary and environmental perspective. "This is the right thing to do, just looking at energy efficiency from a cost of ownership perspective... When you look at it from the environmental perspective, it becomes an even better decision. It's not a logical leap a lot of companies make: 'Hey, our IT group can contribute to reducing our environment footprint.'"

Indeed, the IT industry has a major role to play in a day and age where servers, PCs, networking gear, storage, and applications are vital organs for just about any business, keeping that essential data flowing and operations moving. Frey observed that IT was not explicitly referenced in the IPCC report: "When this issue is talked about in a legislative framework ... the assumption is that all these segments, from power generation to general industry, all have an IT component."

That puts the IT industry in a potentially powerful and influential position as businesses worldwide adapt a greener, more sustainable state of mind, says Edan Dionne, director of corporate environmental affairs at IBM. (Dionne sent me some very thoughtful answers to my e-mail questions, which I am posting here for you to read.)

"Improving the energy utilization of IT equipment and datacenters is important because the application of IT to business and societal energy-efficiency challenges offers us the opportunity to transform the way that society uses energy," Dionne says.

"For example, IT applications can manage power grids to reduce losses and enable distributed generation," she continues. "IT can introduce congestion-pricing schemes that reduce road traffic and encourage the use of carpooling and mass transit. IT enables businesses to improve manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies to reduce waste and energy usage. IT allows people to work remotely to reduce commuting requirements."

Big Blue, like HP, is a participant in WWF's Climate Savers Program, and it, too, has been tackling energy-efficiency issues for years. Just this week, the company announced its Big Green initiative, a $1 billion-a-year service initiative aimed at building and redesigning datacenters that consume less energy. The company also recently garnered recognition from the EPA for pledging to reduce total global GHG emissions by 7 percent from 2005 to 2012.

Dionne offers this advice for companies struggling with how to tackle reducing their energy costs and environmental footprint: "Do what IBM and some other leading companies have done: Assess their own potential impact on the environment; change the necessary policies, processes, and procedures; set benchmarks for achievement; establish a management system to monitor and report progress on those benchmarks; and take corrective action when needed."

Posted by Ted Samson on May 11, 2007 03:11 PM